6 comments:

I've started reading from chapter 1. I tried to comment on the old posts but the Captur thingy didn't seem to believe I was human and kept showing pix of roads :) Perhaps it knows something I don't ...

Fascinating and many similarities with my life, including Sunday School, attitude to kids, educator, outsider, wanting to change things for the better and coming up against the inertia of traditions and ignorance for a start.

I was surprised at first (meaning I didn't expect the narrqative to go there) over the problems you had with the kid and families re hospitals, and I can see how upsetting it must have been. I know that feeling.

One thought before bed. While at Sunday School I sat a scripture exam in 1968 and in '69. I don't know if we were in roughly the same age cohort, but wondered if you took the same while at SS? There's no need to answer.

After reading the next three chapters, it's clear this is a very moving travelogue and the difficulties of transcending the gulf in cultures, finances and perspectives with the locals are powerfully evoked.

Although the disparity between your Western educated expectations of what a child's health and future should be and that of the locals you met is vast, this situation occurs albeit less pronounced in the UK definitely.

Of course we should remember that once basic needs such as clean water, sewage treatment systems, decent housing, adequate food and personal security are met, the Western system of medicine and healthcare probably kills as many as it helps, certainly as practiced in the USA.

I can't say I envy you the moral dilemmas you describe, yet these issues must be hard to avoid when living in very different society. Especially if one is sensitive and blessed with so much empathy it's almost impossibe to shut out human suffering at close quarters.